Jan 21, 2011

Muppet Fan Testimonials: Maxwell Jessop

Maxwell Jessop - Throughout my life, the Muppets have been there. Whether as cameos or as one my biggest obsessions! I know I’m only eleven years old, but believe me I have much to tell!

In my early years, I watched Sesame Street and Bear in the Big Blue House. I loved Ernie as a little kid, and still do! I even have a picture of me at 1 ½ hugging an Ernie stuffed toy! I was practically a Muppet fan from the beginning.

However, I didn’t know about the Muppets from The Muppet Show yet. On a trip to Walt Disney World in 2006, I was introduced to those Muppets. Unfortunately, I was afraid of them... My parents did get me to go on MuppetVision 3D, but throughout the show I was closing my eyes and holding their hands. Luckily two years later, at the age of 9, I went on another vacation to Disney World! This time I was still afraid, but afterward I wasn’t afraid. I actually liked it a lot! And thus a new Muppet fan was made!

The same year, before I moved to Tennessee, I was told by my friends that there were Muppet YouTube videos (I actually had read about them on Muppet Central but I thought it would be inappropriate or fake). But you see, before this I wasn’t actually allowed on YouTube without my parent’s permission. After this I was basically allowed to watch anything on there that wasn’t inappropriate. But also because of my friends' news, I might’ve never seen any of the Muppet viral videos. Especially Bohemian Rhapsody, which is my one of my favorite Muppet viral videos and one of my favorite Muppet songs (seriously, when I got it on my iPod, I listened to it a bunch of times and memorized the words in the Muppet voices)!

Anyway, from that year onward, my love for Muppets grew. In 2009, I began to watch Sesame Street again and saw my first Sesame Street in years: “Firefly Show.” After that I loved it again! Also later that year, I celebrated the 40th anniversary of the show and saw almost every episode of that season!

It was also a good year for Muppets; I started my Muppet DVD collection and got some of The Muppet Show season sets! And I was also introduced to The MuppetCast podcast and got more and more interested in the posts on Muppet Wiki.

Though, my fandom kept growing in the past, 2010 was the one of the awesomest years in Muppet fandom for me! In February, through Google, I stumbled upon a certain blog with a Kermit/Gonzo/Pepe header called The Muppet Mindset! I immediately liked the site and read a few posts. The first post I read was “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Muppet Movies,” which listed, obviously, seven habits of highly effective Muppet movies! Afterward, I read some of the “Discovering the Best of the Muppets at Their Worst” and began to read the site more and more until later that year I read it daily, as I do now!

In March, I also got more into the Muppet fan sites and, with the help of my dad, became a member of Muppet Central Forum! With the forum and the Mindset in my reach I knew the latest Muppet news. I found out about the new Muppet movie through the Mindset, though, I knew more with the forum’s help! By this time, I was obsessed! I read everything on the Mindset, looked at most things on the forum, and, by May, started listening to every new show on the MuppetCast. I sure did find my Rainbow Connection!

Moving right along! Why did I just reference to Muppet movie songs in one post? Oh yeah! To be funny! Anyway, there’s not much to tell after that. Except for the fact that in October I met legendary Muppeteer Dave Goelz and legendary stuntman and poultry enthusiast Gonzo the Great! But what made it even awesomer is that I met the creator and head writer of the Muppet Mindset, my favorite Muppet blog of them all, Ryan Dosier! That day was awesome--Dave Goelz even signed my Muppet comic book!

Max as Beaker

I’m just a big obsessed Muppet fan, well, not really big… I’m only 11! But don’t let that fool you – Muppet Wiki has taught me much! But I am obsessed! I even went as Beaker for Halloween! That tells you that I’m more than a regular fan! I can’t say much else but I wanna end with saying, I love the Muppets! That’s basically my obsession!